The barometer of success for stateless, Jewish émigré artists after the last world war would predictably be a secure home, economic stability and a family life. And any of these markers would have been difficult enough to achieve in the brutal reality of London’s Blitz-scarred streets.
Yet, in a repurposed church, set in a magical, wooded Victorian garden in north London, a group of displaced Jewish artists became the masters of reinvention, both personally and professionally, and quickly reshaped the creative trajectories of both the UK and post-colonial art world.
The Abbey Art Centre, in New Barnet, London[Missing Credit]
The Abbey Art Centre in New Barnet was one of Britain’s largest, most infamous and prolific art colonies, but its history and influence have been rather unfeted. Which means that the string of cultural icons that came to be associated with it is a revelation in itself. Photographs of the time show jovial visits from iconic French film director Jean Renoir, who made films with German refugee film animator Lotte Reiniger, before the war and who continued the association through the Abbey. Henry Moore was also an influential presence and was known to recruit a rotation of assistants from the Abbey, to work on his monumental sculptures.
This month, a comprehensive collection of the work produced by former Abbey residents is on show at the Ben Uri gallery, which has been recording and exhibiting the wonderfully rich and diverse Jewish refugee contribution to British visual culture for the last century.
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